The Price of Ink
by ClockworkCaptain
Summary: President Raiko is murdered and Iroh is trying to find a woman with a dragon tattoo who might know who did it. Maroh


A/N:prompts: Detective/Crime Story, The Frey-you found me

Team: Ember Island Eel Hounds, Fire Bender

Addiction: Getting Tattoos

Words: 2715

The Price of Ink

Iroh stretched as he left the Vice President's office. It had been another long day but Iroh wasn't in any hurry to get home or grab dinner since his original plans were canceled. Iroh grumbled under his breath, he had really been looking forward dinner and tumble in the sheet with his lover. For Mako to cancel out of the blue like that had put the general in a foul mood. Seemed like Mako had to cancel more and more, were they starting to drift apart? Iroh reached into his pocket and found the ring he still hadn't been able to offer. He really hoped not.

From somewhere in the building Iroh heard a man moan. He glanced the direction of the sound and saw the door to President Raiko's officer door open just a crack. Being curious, and having no respect for Raiko's privacy, Iroh looked through the opening. Raiko was passionately kissing a black haired woman, he tor her shirt revealing a black dragon on her left shoulder blade. The woman grabbed the now ruined shirt edge and tried to pull it back up.

"Leave it, I like it when you're dressed in rags. You make them look so natural." Raiko stepped back as if to admire a piece of art. "I see you got another one, pathetic. Why ruin your beauty with black ink?"

Iroh stepped back disgusted, he had never liked Raiko but now he loathed him. Iroh had met Raiko's wife on multiple occasions and she was a lovely woman, Raiko choosing to skip out on her angered him. Shaking his head, Iroh left the capitol building right into a stormy night.

After witnessing that Iroh felt like he needed bath and walked through the rain to a small restaurant on 1st and Armistead Street. He smiled, thinking of better times, this had been the place where he reconnected with Mako. Iroh had been standing outside finishing off his last cigarette when Mako came up to him. They had chatted for a bit on that corner before going to the dinner behind them and talking more. Iroh frowned, Mako seemed so much more open back then now he was becoming more and more closed off. Iroh couldn't remember the last time they had had sex with the lights on. It had definitely been before Kuvira had gone rogue.

Iroh shook his head; right now standing in the rain was not the time to think about that stuff. Deciding that there really wasn't anything better to do Iroh walked into the diner and had pie for dinner before going home and going to bed.

Sometime in the night Iroh was woken up by Mako slipping in bed wrapping his arms around Iroh.

"I'm sorry babe." Mako whispered squeezing Iroh just a little. "But it's over I won't be canceling on you like that anymore."

"Oh? Solved the crime and stopped the bad guy?" Iroh mumbled petting Mako's wet hair.

"Something like that." Mako yawned and stretched.

"Good." Iroh smiled and kissed him. "Go to sleep you sound exhausted."

Mako nodded and soon both men were asleep.

.o.

In the morning Iroh woke to find Mako already getting ready for the day. Mako smiled as he buttoned the last few button on his shirt. "Good morning." He said cheerfully.

"Morning." Iroh yawned before turning on the radio to get the morning news.

~king New! I repeat BREAKING NEWS! President Raiko was found dead this morning in his office. From a trusted source in the police force it seems Riako was stabbed to death. More details to follow.~

Iroh blinked in shock and looked over at Mako who looked apathetic at best. "I can't believe it. Someone actually knocked off Raiko."

Mako shrugged. "The guy had enemies, I wouldn't be surprised if the suspect list for this crime can wrap around the police station, twice. The Chief has already called me into help sort through all of them."

"Oh fun." Iroh was silent for a moment. "You know there was a woman with Raiko last night, she had this dragon tattoo on her shoulder. I bet she saw something maybe if you find her you can cut down you list a little."

Mako was silent for a moment. "I guess if we could find her, she could help but I don't think we have the manpower to do that."

"Well I could try to find her." Iroh got up and gestured to the tattoo on his arm. "I mean I know where to start looking if she got that tattoo in the city."

Mako bit his lip then nodded. "Fine, but don't neglect your other duties to try and find this girl. If she wants to help she'll come forward."

Iroh smiled and kissed Mako. "I won't don't worry and I'll even promise to be home by dinner."

Mako smirked and wrapped his arms around Iroh's neck. "You better, you're cooking tonight."

"Sounds good to me." Iroh smiled. "You seem a lot more relaxed than normal. Did something special happen last night?"

Mako shook his head. "Not really, I just stopped the bad guy, like usual."

"Ok…" Iroh sighed. "Well, I like seeing you like this."

"I like feeling like this." Mako snuggled against Iroh before kissing him goodbye and heading to work.

Before leaving the house Iroh tried his best to draw the tattoo he had seen and headed downtown. He first met up with Shang the artist who had done his tattoo a few years ago and was a personal friend. Shang looked at the piece.

"And you're looking to get this done or…?"

"I'm trying to find the artist who did it. I think the girl that had this tattoo might know who killed Raiko."

Shang looked at the tattoo and stroked his beard. "Well, I really hope you're a lousy artist because no one I know would make something so goofy looking."

"I only saw it for a second, give me a break."

Iroh crossed his arms.

"I'm giving it to you. June over at Frey Tattoo Salon does a lot of these kind of coiled dragon tattoos you might want to talk to her." Shang smiled. "So how's your boyfriend?"

"Thanks Shang." Iroh nodded and pocketed the paper. "And he's good, thanks for asking."

Stepping out of Shang's shop Iroh wondered for a few blocks before finding Frey Tattoo Salon. Inside the place smelled like every other shop on the street. A heavily tattooed man name Sam leaned against the counter. "Can I help you man?"

Iroh nodded. "Yeah, I'm looking for June, I'm trying to find out if she did a tattoo I saw."

Sam shrugged. "Depends, what did it look like?"

Iroh pulled out his sketch. "Like this only less shitty."

Sam scrutinized the drawing. "Yeah, I could see a less shitty version of that being hers. But if you want to talk to you'll have to come back after lunch."

"Why so late?"

"She was up late last night." Sam gestured for Iroh to follow him. "Completing this." He pointed to a sketch of a black phoenix.

Iroh did a low whistle. "That's beautiful."

"Yeah, she's one of the best. Come back after lunch and you can talk to her. She doesn't have anyone booked until 3pm."

Iroh nodded, left to grab lunch and returned to the shop. He found June working at her station wearing a bright red dress.

"Are you June?"

She looked up from her sketch. "Are you the guy Sam talked about?"

Iroh nodded. "Yeah." He pulled out the picture. "Did you do this tattoo on a woman's left shoulder?"

She took the sketch and looked at it for a minute. "Well, I did do a dragon similar to this on a left shoulder but it wasn't on a girl, I made this one for my canvas." She pulled out a sketch of the dragon Iroh had seen the night before.

"Your canvas?" Iroh tilted his head.

"Yeah." She smiled. "Sweet guy, totally addicted to being tattooed but he had good taste in artists always coming to me. I did that one about a year ago." She pointed to the phoenix sketch. "He was actually who I was tattooing last night. We were celebrating."

"Celebrating what?"

June pulled the newspaper and pointed to the top story. "This asshole finally being dead. I'm even wearing red to show off my joy."

Iroh's eyes widened. "How did you know his was dead last night to celebrate?"

"Because my canvas was there when the bastard expired. Don't look so shocked the guy had it coming." June leaned back. "He used his power and control to get whatever he wanted, which in this case was my canvas. He hated Raiko but couldn't do anything about it except get at tattoo afterwards. I think he liked to use the pain as a distraction, I always tried to make something beautiful but it's like putting a bandaid on a bullet wound."

Iroh felt a pang of sadness. "Why didn't he ever…"

"Report it? I don't know who you are but when you're a street kid that's caught the eye of the most powerful man in the republic. You don't have anyone you can report it too, especially when you're a guy."

"That's the sad truth, so did your canvas kill Raiko or just watch?"

June shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't ask. I'm just happy that he's free of that monster."

Iroh nodded. "I bet. So are you going to tell me your canvas's name?"

June shook her head. "Nope, you're not a cop and I don't want him to suffer anymore then he has."

Iroh nodded. "Understandable."

.o.

Mako walked to work feeling both happy and apprehensive, he could feel the skin around his rib cage twinge a little. Iroh wasn't set to ship out for another week and that was great but it was hard to hide a tattoo while it healed. During a break that afternoon, Mako checked his newest acquisition, a black phoenix on his ribcage; it looked to be healing nicely. For a brief moment Mako wondered if he should tell Iroh about it, and the other thirty or so tattoos, but shut the idea down. Opening up to Iroh about all of them after years of hiding seemed like bad idea. Iroh would feel hurt and Mako would feel more alone than ever.

Mako touched his left shoulder, not to mention he wasn't ready to answer some questions that were bound to come up. Mako fixed his shirt and headed back into the files to pick two or three people who could possibly have killed Raiko but would be cleared easily. No one deserved to rot in jail because of him.

"Hey chief! I found something!" A fellow detective yelled running through the station.

Mako sat down at his desk and looked at the crime scene photos while he felt the walls closing in on him and then the phone rang.

.o.

When Iroh came home Mako was in the shower, crying. Even in the steam, Iroh could see the dragon tattoo on Mako's shoulder and all the others on his left arm. Iroh opened the shower door and joined Mako on the floor. He took Mako's hand and kissed it. They were quiet for a moment just sitting in the hot water.

"You found me." Mako mumbled.

"Yeah." Iroh was quiet. "What are you feeling right now?"

"Lost, confused, just numb maybe." He looked at one of the tattoos on his arm. "I'm so in over my head right now and I don't know how I'm going to go on."

"I'm going to help you with that. I spoke to June."

"Yeah she called me." Mako sighed. "Did you know Raiko kept a diary of it all? The sick fuck kept a record of everything." Mako started to weep. "It's only a matter of time before someone at the station puts it all together."

Iroh pulled Mako close and stroked his hair. "It's going to be ok. I'm here now; I'll take care of it all. Raiko's dead and I won't let him hurt you from the grave."

Mako nodded as he sobbed. "He joked that I was getting too many tattoos and he was going to go after Bolin next because he liked it when he could see their skin. I didn't have a choice, I had to kill him so I grabbed the ice pick and..."

Iroh kissed Mako's temple. "You don't have to say anymore. I'll take care of it all."

.o.

Lin sat in her chair expecting someone to walk into her office any minute she was somewhat surprised when it was the regal Izumi who walked in. A week after Raiko's brutal murder the press was foaming at the mouth for answers, answers Lin didn't want to disclose. She looked at the small diary in front on her desk and felt the disgusted for Riako rise back up in her gut.

"I'm kind of surprised you're here. I was expecting the Avatar or maybe even Iroh, to show but not you."

"I was in town for Raiko's funeral, thought I'd drop by to make sure there wasn't any confusion between us."

Lin nodded and pushed the book towards her. "Mako is like a son to me, the fact I had no idea what was going on hurts me deeply."

"Iroh didn't know either until after that night." Izumi took the book and examined it. "Is this the only thing that could incriminate Mako?"

"That's the only thing, and it's a mute point with him being in the Fire Nation and soon to be part of the royal family. We can't touch him."

Izumi dumped the diary into a trashcan and set the contents on fire. For a few minutes all the two women did was watch the content burn.

"You're invited to Mako and Iroh's wedding celebration in a week. Like you said you were like his mother. He would like you to be there."

"Aren't you slightly afraid I'll try to arrest Mako? I'm still chief of police after all."

Izumi shook her head. "No, I'm not. Besides, It's only the celebration Mako and Iroh were married in a quiet ceremony the minute they were on Fire Nation soil."

"I see, and what happens if the union doesn't last?" Lin frowned.

"Even if divorced he will be a prince. I had that written in the marriage contract. They don't think they need it but I wanted to make sure Mako was safe. So are you coming?"

"Yes, of course. Just one last question; Have you seen Bolin or any of the Avatar's group?"

Izumi nodded. "They've been with Mako in the Fire Nation, trying their best to help. Avatar Korra in particular has been very understanding and helpful."

.o.

Mako sat quietly under a cherry tree just listening to the birds. He felt relaxed and happy, the need to feel the burn of the needle had subsided somewhat but he had an idea for one last tattoo. Korra tapped his shoulder.

"Yuan for your thoughts?"

Mako held out his left hand. "Would it be bad to get just a small black band around my ring finger?"

"I think that's a question for Iroh, honestly."

"Yeah, probably."

Korra took a deep breath. "So what are you going to do now?"

Mako shrugged. "Not sure yet, Iroh's not rushing me into anything, he just wants me to get better and put this all behind me."

"Do you think you can do that?"

"I want to." Mako looked down the hill at his husband talking to an official and smiled. "I think I can I just need time."

Korra nodded. "Well, Asami's thinking of expanding the company to the Fire Nation, so we'll be here for a while so we can hang out any time."

"Yeah, Bolin's planning on staying around for awhile too." Mako pushed himself upright and started to walk down the hill. "I think I'm going to go spend some time with Iroh, maybe we call all have dinner tonight?"

Korra nodded and smiled. "I'll let the others know and Mako."

"Yeah?"

"Just know I'll always have you back."

"Same."


End file.
